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Opinion Contributor

Bay State not buying 'war on women'

Health care will be key in the election between Brown and Warren, the authors say. | AP Photo

By CARRIE LUKAS and KELLYANNE CONWAY | 4/4/12 9:20 PM EDT

Political analysts shocked by Republican Scott Brown’s 2010 victory to replace Ted Kennedy as Massachusetts senator should brace themselves. This year’s contest between Sen. Brown and Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren remains a key battleground, and Democrats are by no means guaranteed a pickup in what has been their most reliable home turf. Polls have shown both candidates with leads or tied, which suggests this contest remains a tossup and will be one of the most closely watched senatorial races in the lead up to November.

Brown’s continued strength in Massachusetts should alarm Democrats banking on demonizing those on the right as complicit in a “war on women.” Even many voters in the bluest-of-blue state of Massachusetts aren’t buying this line.

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Independent Women’s Voice led an independent expenditure ahead of the special election in 2010 to redefine the Brown-Coakley contest as a consequential event deciding the fate of federal legislation on health care and “the critical 41st Senate vote.” And now, in a poll of 505 likely voters in Massachusetts, conducted by the polling company™ and IWV finds Brown now leads 47 percent to 39 percent, while 12 percent of respondents remain undecided. Asked to recall their voting preferences from one month ago, 43 percent said they had supported Brown compared with 34 percent who had supported Warren.

This suggests that Brown’s lead narrowed by a statistically insignificant one point, during a month in which the media-narrative was a moderate Republican’s nightmare. Democrats turned public concern about the Obama administration’s mandate that employers (including those with religious affiliations) must provide health insurance covering abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization into a national discussion of Republican attitudes regarding contraception. GOP missteps — from failing to showcase women at prominent congressional hearings about religious liberty versus the mandate, recast by the left as being about women’s health, to conservative icon Rush Limbaugh, misled by an inaccurate report, insulting a Georgetown law student/contraceptive activist (for which he apologized, but by then the narrative was set) — allowed Democrats to twist opposition to the unprecedented government mandate into a “GOP War on Women.” Elizabeth Warren, the prominent, feminist Harvard professor, seems particularly well positioned to seize this narrative and find a sympathetic audience in the Bay State.

Yet Massachusetts voters who bought this claim were essentially those who already supported Warren or would eventually come around to her regardless. Even more troublingly for Warren and Democrats who see this war-on-women rhetoric as the path to victory, the mandate debate appears to have given more of a boost to Brown than to Warren.

More than half of those who have increased support for Brown in the past month say the health care, birth control mandate debate influenced their vote “a great deal” or “some” compared with only 39 percent of those who recently increased support for Elizabeth Warren.

The article states that a GOP misstep was a failure to showcase women at a hearing. The whole story is the Dems scheduled Barry Lynn (not a woman) and then at the last minute tried to switch in Fluke before she could be vetted. I would have thought a Politico reported would have known that.

Rush Limbaugh was misled? By who? Can he not afford a fact checker, or does he use that money for cigars and oxycontin instead? If he was misled, he stayed misled for days as he doubled, then tripled down on his stupidity.

What voters aren't buying this year is that Republicans give a damn about anything but money and managing people's moral lives. While the Republican War on Women might not compel those on the right to jump ship, it's a clarion call for women on the left to actually get out and vote, and that's what winning elections is all about: getting more of your people motivated and voting. Women (and men, like me) are tired of the endless assault on reproductive rights, and the newest round of assaults, in the form of mandated trans******l ultrasounds and forcing a doctor to read a description (like a scene from SAW), is really the last straw. Having Santorum talk about how birth control is somehow a moral evil isn't helping your case, either.

And you have other problems outside of Mass. in the form of all the people your party has insulted in the past four (or 30) years. There's article after article of Republicans wringing their hands and wondering what they can do to repair relations with Hispanic voters, and I can tell you from my perch in Arizona--it's too late. You might draw an occasional values voter out of the Latino population, but you can't drop bombs on people and hope that they will climb out of the rubble to thank you (literally or figuratively). You lost the black vote long before Obama when Reagan decided to brand all black people as being on welfare. We are still seeing the fallout of that strategy as we watch the conservative reaction to the Trayvon Martin case. Gay vote: gone.

Scott Brown is only surviving because he's playing the part of an old-school Republican moderate and not identifying with the crazy train of "severely" conservative lawmakers. Maybe he wins, and maybe he doesn't, but he's certainly not being helped by the nuttiness coming from the right the past two years.

The article states that a GOP misstep was a failure to showcase women at a hearing. The whole story is the Dems scheduled Barry Lynn (not a woman) and then at the last minute tried to switch in Fluke before she could be vetted. I would have thought a Politico reported would have known that.

100 percent WRONG. You have not told the most important part of the story -- which is that for a hearing that was fundamentally about womens rights to control their own bodies the GOP chose a panel that did not include a single women.

The GOP is on the wrong (losing) side of every social issue. It will pay a price for this in November. All the spinning and smoke and mirrors in the world will not change that.

The latest bad news for the GOP is that a new poll shows President Obama making big gains with women in battleground states. A USA Today/gallup poll released Monday, April 2 shows that a gender gap will pose one of the GOP's biggest challenges in the November election.

The poll shows that President Obama leads Romney by 18 percentage points among female registered voters in the nation's top 12 swing states. The gender gap between Obama and Santorum was 15 points.

You can check out the bad news for the GOP here:news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/poll-shows-obama-making-big-gains-female-voters-170245867.html

Democrats are the real insult to women. As if we would believe the false choice presented by them (you know, because Republicans don't want to fund "free" stuff, they are going to take away your rights!) is real because they say so.

Because Republicans try to limit the bloated and massive bureaucracy that passes as government, and because limiting government mean not funding EVERYTHING, and because limiting entitlements means limiting somethings women engage in does NOT equal the false and neanderthal thinking promoted by Democrats.

Warren is an elitist lefty windbag and it is just possible there aren't enough other elitist lefty windbags in MA to get her elected. If she does beat brown, the people of MA deserve everyhting she brings.

American voters aren't stupid and will not fall for the antics of Democrats trying to promote a false accusation that Republicans hate women. How childish for any anyone to promote this type of ideology. Look at the way Mitt Romney looks at his wife and how he treats her with respect. Then, look at Weiner and how he treated his wife. Look at Kennedy and how he treated his wife, look at former president Kennedy and how he treated his wife. Now tell me who mistreats women. I would say it is not the Republicans....would you. Of course not, this is a non-issue. When it comes to contraceptives everyone knows it is a women's write as it has been. It is also the right of church's to voice their opinion and opposition, although I have to say under Obama it is getting harder and harder for Americans to voice their opinions, especially if you disagree with him. Women....Republicans love you and we assure you we won't use you as pawns like Obama and Democrats do, just for political gains.

allowed Democrats to twist opposition to the unprecedented government mandate into a “GOP War on Women.” Elizabeth Warren, the prominent, feminist Harvard professor, seems particularly well positioned to seize this narrative and find a sympathetic audience in the Bay State.

Twist opposition to the unprecedented goverment Mandate INTO a "GOP War on Women".....wow some honest reporting for a change.....

What irks me about most politicians is, they take the twisted narrative(LIE) and retell it in a continuous loop until it runs out of traction.....BOTH SIDES do it.....it's basically LYING to the people.

So how are we supposed to trust a word that comes out of any of their mouths??

American voters aren't stupid and will not fall for the antics of Democrats trying to promote a false accusation that Republicans hate women. How childish for any anyone to promote this type of ideology. Look at the way Mitt Romney looks at his wife and how he treats her with respect. Then, look at Weiner and how he treated his wife. Look at Kennedy and how he treated his wife, look at former president Kennedy and how he treated his wife. Now tell me who mistreats women. I would say it is not the Republicans....would you. Of course not, this is a non-issue. When it comes to contraceptives everyone knows it is a women's write as it has been. It is also the right of church's to voice their opinion and opposition, although I have to say under Obama it is getting harder and harder for Americans to voice their opinions, especially if you disagree with him. Women....Republicans love you and we assure you we won't use you as pawns like Obama and Democrats do, just for political gains.

the assumption the vote will be based on divisive and hateful accusations will not work. the American voter is not interested in this smearing .... let's talk something important. btw: if the SCOTUS strikes ObamaCare down this would be a muted point anyway.